These are able to be found as a comment mentioned by searching for "Allegheny Sample Ballot" HOWEVER, I've been looking at other sample ballots and there is always an indicator that it is a sample ballot. These are blank. Even with the border watermarks. I have no idea if they actually would pass a tabulator or not, they are just too "official" if they are Samples. If a connection can be made proving these are not viable if printed out on the right paper, then I'll delete this post.
https://apps.alleghenycounty.us/website/PDF_GEN/GEN%20(2).pdf
THIS WEBSITE REQUIRES LOGIN CREDENTIALS BUT DUCKDUCKGO BYPASSED IT ENTIRELY
Replace the (2) with (1) or anything and you'll get a NEW BALLOT
YOU CAN DO THIS FOR EVERY PRECINCT IN THE COUNTY
I also FOUND THE OFFICIAL SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE PA STATE RETURN ENVELOPE.
ANOTHER FUNNY THING. https://www.dos.pa.gov/VotingElections/Documents/Envelope-Guide.pdf
Try going to the documents section. You need a FUCKING LOG IN AND PASSWORD
Search for this in DuckDuckGo to find it "allegheny county mail in ballot return envelope guide"
Pede u/poxonall in comments mentions that its a redirect from a "Polling Place and Sample ballot". However, I can't find the sub-directories to navigate to that. And again, apps.alleghenycounty requires credentials to log in. As well as there being sample ballots in other locations that outright say so.I'm going to keep looking around.
****** Update 332pm EST: I was able to find the subdirectories that led to this page. Poxonall made a good point, these are very convincing sample ballots. And other sample ballots have an indicator of them being so I'm not sure if these would pass the ES&S tabulators or not. ******
Other sample PA ballots are found everywhere. I don't live in PA and I was trying to find inconsistencies in photos of the counties that were anomalous. If anyone has a leftover Mail in ballot and can compare it to the "sample" ones listed here that would be very helpful. AGAIN. These are listed as sample, and if we prove they are, I'll delete this post. But I just can't find a similarity between these ballots and actual SAMPLE ballots.
u/hold10forthebigguy says as an Alleghany County resident this looks identical to the ballot that he voted on. Also. The published date for this PDF date is Nov 3, 2020 as far as I can find.
How do we get through to the apps.alleghencycounty site. You're not supposed to have permissions to that from what I can see. How did you navigate to that.
Can they still be scanned into machines?
That's the thing we wouldn't know. Also if someone from Allegheny County could comment on this that would be very helpful. I have no idea.
I worked the polls in Allegheny (Pittsburgh), I'll unzip when I get home and take a look
Correct. However. https://ballotpedia.org/Pennsylvania_official_sample_ballots,_2020
Those are sample ballots as well. I've never seen a sample ballot as detailed as these. I genuinely tried to find an indicator of it being a sample. I'm confused as to how viable this would be or not. The fact that they have all of the outer border markings as well is very disconcerting.
In my state, I was able to download a sample ballot for my voting precinct by simply confirming my voter registration information.
But, it is very clearly watermarked (in pink) that it is a "Sample Muestra" (the second word is "Sample" in Spanish).
This needs to be top comment. I swear, sometimes people are a bit too much on this site. Calm down everyone, this is only a drill.
I am pretty certain that they will scan successfully. One question I have is whether real ballots have any invisible markings (perhaps UV readable) which the scanner needs to pick up.
I have a stack of real ballots from a past election which I will test. I have just ordered a UV flashlight and will report back with my results when it comes in.
Update: I checked my ballots with a blacklight and I did not see any "hidden" uv-readable information. So it appears that they are basically ordinary printings, meaning that I would expect anybody's real printout to scan successfully.
FYI, the reason why I have a stack of real ballots is is because I sell some low-tech voting equipment, and I was given these ballots (excess ballots from a past election) from a ballot printing company so I could use them in product photos.